The first was that the wine world had begun to change. Forget about the emerging modernist movement in Piedmont, the world of wine had begun to act like big business, integrating hype into the annual routine. It's an embedded feature of the current marketplace where every other vintage is the best ever, anywhere.

The second was the climate was maybe changing. There had not been a vintage like this in decades, and the preceding vintages, with the exception of 1984, had been pretty decent, although the string from 1978-1983 pales in comparison to any run of near current vintages. I think one can look back and see that something might have been afoot as far back as 1985, if one were to look for such a thing.

But the most important lesson to be learned from 1985, and one that can only fully be appreciated with the benefit of considerable hindsight, is that wines really do reflect their vintages. By that I mean that easy vintages have a tendency to produce easy wines. Challenging vintages, challenging wines.

The wines of 1985 are a lovely set of wines, still fruit-driven, gentle, and to an extent, easy. I love these wines, and find them to be at their peak right about now, but they have not fulfilled their early promise of the “best ever.” Not that that is particularly important.

So what can be said about the vintage right now from this sunset of wines? They are delicious, generally significantly more rustic than their current incarnations, which in a vintage like 1985 with its soft, obvious nature, works to the wine’s advantage. In a sense -- and its sort of hard to justify saying that these 25-year-old wines are early maturing -- but, they are. Much softer and more giving than vintages before (1978 and 1982 for example) or after (1989 and 1990), but that is to be expected.

Is it a first class vintage? Probably not, but it's firmly at the top of the second tier, though. They are beginning to represent dubious value, so I’m not running around buying many of these, but for those who find well-stored, well-priced examples, they are worth adding to the cellar. While these wines are in no danger of dying a sudden death, they won’t make particulary old bones either.

So if you have 'em, start drinking 'em. Share them with friends since they are in such an easy-to-appreciate style, or don’t, since we really don’t need anybody else chasing these down!

Here’s my line-up in the order we tasted them. My wines of the night were the Giuseppe Rinaldi, Aldo Conterno Colonnello, and the two Villeros, with which we closed out the evening. I have always loved Vietti’s wines, but this 1985 Villero really blew me away. Certainly one of the finest wines of the vintage. I wish I had more left!